Caterham District Scouts

On the morning of Saturday 3rd October, five Scouts and Explorer Scouts met at Chaldon HQ to begin a day of activities aimed at aiding the selection of two young people to represent Caterham District at the 22nd World Scout Jamboree in Sweden, to be held in the summer of 2011. I had the pleasure of attending all day as general dog’s body, tea boy etc. but fortunately the job of assessing and selecting the lucky applicants was not my responsibility. This onerous task fell on John Clarke and Martin Terry who had kindly agreed to spend the day watching what went on and talking with the applicants. Care had been taken to ensure the assessors did not know the individual applicants and only first names were used throughout the day.

Once equipment had been loaded for transportation, I left the party to make their own way to Roverdene on foot. On their arrival they were met by our assessors and John Andrews who welcomed everyone and wished them all luck before departing to purchase the makings of lunch and dinner!
The morning was spent putting up a variety of tents, making camp gadgets and building a camp gateway. Following lunch there were more projects while each person in turn had a discussion with the assessors before building a fire and preparing and cooking a three course dinner for all present.

After dinner was cleared away there was time for some campfire sketches before the day ended at 7.30pm.

Both John and Martin commented that all five applicants would be worthy members of the Jamboree team, they were impressed by the way everyone worked together and got on. In the end a decision had to be made and the two successful applicants, Dan C. and Mary T. received the good news on Monday 5th October.

Having spent the day and watching what took place I am certain the right decision was made and I wish both young people all the best for the next 20 months of hard work! To the three that didn’t get a place, they should take heart that it was a close run thing all day and everyone deserved a place but we only had two to offer!

Tim Evans, Deputy District Commissioner